The Doctor of War
by JTR01
Summary: The Doctor's last thoughts before he regenerates at the end of "Twice Upon a Time".


**Don't know if this has been done before, but I looked and couldn't find anything. I don't own Doctor Who.**

The Doctor pressed a button on the console of the ship, loving the sound of his magnificent ship returning to the North Pole. Hopefully he will get there before Ben and Polly get back, and nothing will change from the way it is supposed to go. He didn't want to mess with the timeline anymore than it already has been. He could end up in a world where everything throughout history happens at the same time. Or maybe something not as far fetched and ridiculous.

He still struggled to believe what he had just experience. Meeting his future self, who was also trying to resist his regeneration, and had clearly stopped taking care of the ship. Really it looked ridiculous. But besides that the Doctor felt his future was alright, regardless of whether or not he ended up regenerating in the end. Except the Doctor couldn't stop thinking about what the Testimony Foundation had shown the Doctor. What it had called him.

The Doctor of War.

How could such a thing exist? A doctor was supposed to help and make people feel better. And while he will acknowledge his bedside manner leaves something to be desired, the Doctor has never been one for war. His family may have wanted him to become a soldier, but that was something he never wanted to be. Yet all those visions of the future, filled with so many people. A young blond haired man, someone with a long scarf and a very thin man in a suit and overcoat, to identify a few. They looked so different, but the Doctor knew those were the men he was destined to become.

While he had acted calmly and at ease with his future self, the truth was that the Doctor was still terrified and a large part of him wanted to try and get Ben and Poly safe before dying for real. He knew he was still a good man, as his future self had saved the Captain, but why was he called the Doctor of War? And the Imp of the Pandorica, the Oncoming Strom, the Destroyer of Worlds, and the Beast of Trenzalore? What sort of good man is called those things?

As the ship came to a halt, the Doctor knew he had to decide now. Did he change, or try to get Ben and Polly somewhere safe before finally dying? He was leaning to the latter, when his thoughts drifted to the one called Bill Potts. While at first not sure what to make of her and wary due to the fact she had been working for the Testimony at the time, he did sort of enjoy her company and knew she cared about him, or at least the future version of him she knew. He kept thinking about what she had said after he explained what he was running towards, as she had put it. Indeed he had always wondered throughout his life why good seemed to be the dominant force in the universe, when all the logic seems to suggest evil should be absolute. That's probably why back when he was with Ian, Barbara and Susan he was a lot more...pragmatic shall we say in the beginning. It was only by spending time with them did he start to act like he did when he was younger, when he was more idealistic.

Her response baffled him. A bloke, travelling through the universe and fixing everything when it went wrong. It sounded like a ridiculous fairy tale. But the way she looked at him when she told him he hasn't figured out why good always beat evil, and how everyone who knew him understood the reason. It was bothering him, since the at she had acted suggested the answer was under his nose the whole time. He looked at the ship's screen which showed Ben and Polly approaching it from outside, and was just about to find a way to send them home safely before he died when he figured out what Bill meant.

He smiled, as the realization of what it meant dawned on him. He felt arrogant and foolish to be thinking it, but as he thought about everything he's done so far and the way Bill had talked to him, he realised how much sense it made. He wanted to laugh, but he was starting to let the regeneration to happen and he was quickly losing strength. He fell to the ground, but he didn't mind. He wasn't scared of what the Testimony had shown him anymore, event though he knew he would quickly forget what happened when he changed. He was ready for his future, and find everything out the long way round.

 **Tell me what you think and if there are spelling mistakes or sentences that don't make sense.**


End file.
